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RTV: Lois Vierk pt. 1

Release Date: Sunday, October 21, 2007

This RTV episode features two works by Lois V Vierk, “Words Fail Me” in memories of 9/11, performed by Sachiko Kato (piano) and Jody Redhage (cello), and “Demon Star” performed by Jody Redhage (cello) and Matthew Gold (marimba).

Lois V Vierk is known for her highly energetic developmental music, which often reaches a climactic ending. The Village Voice has written of her, “…rare musical intelligence.” She is from the generation after the minimalists, both chronologically and artistically. The concentration on sheer sensuous beauty of sound, especially in some of the “long tone” works of minimalist composers in the 70’s and 80’s, has always been arresting for her. In her own music, this pure sensuous beauty is often a starting point. She works with emotional expressiveness and with many kinds of sound relationships as well, and builds form and structure. She composes music for many kinds of ensembles, including solo and chamber works, traditional orchestral works as well as those for Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music), and tap dance and live electronics.

Performance date: 10/21/2007
Episode release date: 04/23/2010
Host: Phoebe Legere


Lois V Vierk, from Lansing Illinois, in suburban Chicago, was born in 1951. She studied composition at California Institute of the Arts with Mel Powell, Leonard Stein, and Morton Subotnick. For ten years, she studied Gagaku (Japanese Court Music) with Mr. Suenobu Togi in Los Angeles, and, for two years, she studied in Tokyo with Mr. Sukeyasu Shiba, the lead ryuteki flutist of the emperor’s Gagaku Orchestra. Ms. Vierk has spent most of her career in New York City. Her music has achieved an impressive international reputation. Recently it was presented in “composer’s portrait” concerts at German Radio, Cologne and by other German and Swiss ensembles. Commissions include Silversword for the Lincoln Center Festival, where it was performed by the Reigakusha Ensemble of Tokyo, River Beneath the River, commissioned by the Barbican Center, London, for the Kronos Quartet, which has played it many times.

RTV: Lois Vierk pt. 2